Wealth Building and Risk Management

This unit develops skills to grow and protect personal wealth through budgeting, tax-smart saving, investing, insurance, and consumer protection. Students will apply strategies for optimizing take-home pay, selecting and allocating investments, managing insurance and emergencies, and using digital tools safely to support long-term financial goals.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze a personal or sample monthly budget to identify and quantify at least three strategies to reduce spending, increase emergency savings, and improve cash flow (e.g., trimming taxes, cutting discretionary expenses, boosting deductions).
• Apply employment and investment tax concepts and retirement-account options by completing a simulated payroll-withholding adjustment, comparing tax treatments of common ownership vehicles, and creating an age-appropriate retirement allocation and transfer plan.
• Evaluate ownership vehicles and fund types by comparing expected returns, fees, liquidity, diversification, and tax consequences, and recommend an investment or fund selection aligned with a specified financial goal and risk tolerance.
• Demonstrate consumer protection and risk-management skills by designing an insurance and emergency-reserve plan (home, auto, disability), resolving a simulated insurance problem or claim, identifying financial scams or unreliable sources, and producing a credit-improvement or credit-counseling action plan.